Friday, August 31, 2007

Make money from water

SHAH ALAM: The Selangor state government will have to fork out a whopping RM70mil every year to buy raw water from Pahang to overcome the shortage in the state.

And that's all the more reason why state governments should work on saving their forests, and concentrate instead on water resources, Energy, Water and Communications Minister Datuk Seri Dr Lim Keng Yaik said.

For instance, Pahang only earned about RM7mil from timber but if Selangor agreed to pay RM70mil per year to Pahang for the raw water, the revenue would be10 times higher, he added. He said Selangor would have also to build facilities such as tunnels, pipes and a dam in Hulu Langat before water can be channelled from Pahang.

“All these need RM3bil, excluding maintenance like electricity and pumps. It is not cheap,” he told newsmen after the opening of conference on Managing Challenges Towards Sustainable Water Resources and Environment organised by Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS) here yesterday.

Dr Lim said the project was expected to take five years if both states reached a consensus on the price.

State governments, the owners of water resources, should look at their water resources in a fresh way and seek to earn more money from water royalties, he added.

“They must stop logging, must have people to look after the water and protect the water catchments,” he said.

People in Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya, who now use 4,000 million cubic metres of water per day, required an extra 500 million cubic metres of water per day, he said.

The extra 500 million cubic metres would not be necessary if water loss was reduced by replacing broken and old pipes, finding alternative water resources such as underground water and saving water, he said.

“We appeal to the people to save water. If we all save between 10% and 20% we can already save 400 million cu.m,” he added.